New Medicare rules designed to give nursing home residents more control of their care are being phased into effect. The rules give nursing home residents more options regarding meals and visitation as well as make changes to discharge and grievance procedures.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid finalized the rules — the first comprehensive update to nursing home regulations since 1991 — in November 2016. The first group of new rules took effect in November; the rest will be phased in over the next two years.

Here are some of the new rules now in effect:

Visitors. The new rules allow residents to have visitors of the resident’s choosing and at the time the resident wants, meaning the facility cannot impose visiting hours. There are also rules about who must have immediate access to a resident, including a resident’s representative. For more information, click here.

Meals. Nursing homes must make meals and snacks available when residents want to eat, not just at designated meal times.

Roommates. Residents can choose their roommate as long as both parties agree.

Grievances. Each nursing home must designate a grievance official whose job it is to make sure grievances are properly resolved. In addition, residents must be free from the fear of discrimination for filing a grievance. The nursing home also has to put grievance decisions in writing. For more information, click here.

Transfer and Discharge. The new rules require more documentation from a resident’s physician before the nursing home can transfer or discharge a resident based on an inability to meet the resident’s needs. The nursing home also cannot discharge a patient for nonpayment if Medicaid is considering a payment claim. For more information, click here.

CMS also enacted a rule forbidding nursing homes from entering into binding arbitration agreements with residents or their representatives before a dispute arises. However,a nursing home association sued to block the new rule and a U.S. district court has granted an injunction temporarily preventing CMS from implementing it. The Trump Administration is reportedly planning to lift this ban on nursing home arbitration clauses.

In November 2017, rules regarding facility assessment, psychotropic drugs and medication review, and care plans, among others, will go into effect. The final set of regulations covering infection control and ethics programs will take effect in November 2019.

According to a March 2017 survey by Caring.com, six out of ten Americans have no willor any other kind of estate planning. Many said they’d get around to it, eventually. When they’re old. (The survey did find that the elderly are much more likely to have some plan in place.) It’s all too clear that most of us think “estate planning” is a euphemism for “deathtime” planning. Indeed, in the Caring.com survey, one-third said that they didn’t need an estate plan because they didn’t have any assets to give someone when they’d died.

However, comprehensive estate planning isn’t just deathtime planning. It’slifetime planning, too. It’s about ensuring that your medical and financial decisions can be made by someone that you trust when you are unable to make those decision for yourself. Lifetime planning can help you address potential tax liabilities, find you benefit programs you may eligible for, and protect your family from costly guardianshipor conservatorship court. It can make sure that a trusted party looks after and protects your affairs, if and when you’re not able to.

Lifetime Planning Tools

As estate planners, we have an arsenal of lifetime planning tools to benefit our clients, and we custom-tailor such plans to meet each individual’s needs. Here are a couple of the most common (and necessary) lifetime planning tools you should discuss with us.

Revocable living trusts

When people hear the word “trust,” they may think of “trust fund babies” or think that trusts are something only for the super-rich.

However, a trust is simply a legal tool that can help almost anyone with property – not just the wealthy. In a trust, assets you own are re-titled and transferred into the trust. When this happens, technically, you no longer own your real estate, stocks, bonds and similar properties. Instead, the trust owns them all. But you still control everything in the trust: You can buy and sell these assets as if they were still in your name. In fact, revocable living trusts don’t even change your income taxes while you’re alive. You continue to file your tax returns as you always have, making them very easy to administer while you’re alive. As the creator (grantor or settlor) of the trust, you can continue to make changes to the trust as long as you’re competent to do so.

When you die, the trust becomes irrevocable, meaning its terms can’t generally be changed. At this point, your chosen successor trustee distributes assets to beneficiaries (the people, such as your spouse, children, a church, or other charity, you named to inherit from you). In many respects, the role of the trustee is similar to that of the executor of a will. But, a trustee of a fully funded trust doesn’t have to go through the both public and expensive probate process. Trusts are private, unlike wills, which can also provide valuable privacy to your family and ultimately help preserve your assets for the people you want to benefit from your estate.

Durable power of attorney

Durable powers of attorney come in two forms. With a standard durable power of attorney, a person is legally designated to act on your behalf, in the ways specified in the document. You can make the durable power of attorney broad in scope or quite limited, and it becomes active as soon as you sign it. Under this document, the person may sign checks for you, enter contracts on your behalf, even buy or sell your assets. What they can do depends on what you authorized in the document.

For those who ultimately may need long term care, having a durable power of attorney in place before the need for the long term care arises, can allow for eligibility for Medicaid benefits that otherwise may be beyond reach of the incapacitated person. If the power of attorney is not already in place when dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease, or other debilitating diseases arise, the lack of a durable power of attorney could cost your family thousands of dollars a month. A properly drafted and signed power of attorney can bring those funds back to the family – legally and ethically.

In the case of a “springing” power of attorney (POA), also known as a conditional power of attorney, the person only has this authority if you become incapacitated. At that point, the POA “springs” into action. Florida law does not allow the use of springing powers of attorney any longer, but those signed prior to October 1, 2011 are deemed to be legally effective. However, there is no statutory basis for forcing a third party to honor a power of attorney signed before October 1, 2011, so if you have such a power of attorney you may want to seriously consider having it updated to comply with the statute that became effective on that date.

There is no “best” power of attorney. We’ll work with you to determine which is the best fit for your needs and goals.

Health Care Power of Attorney

In an instant, an accident can change a healthy, vigorous person into someone who can’t make her healthcare decisions. Others face a long decline in mental capacity because of a disease like Alzheimer’s. In either case, you want to empower those you trust to make medical decisions for you. Though health care legal documents vary somewhat by state, the general principle is that, through this document, you authorize someone to make medical decisions for you, if and when you no longer have the capacity to do so. You can also communicate your desired treatment and end-of-life care. However, those instructions may not be valid in every state.

A Holistic Approach

Lifetime planning is a comprehensive approach to estate planning. And while it addresses needs of the living, comprehensive planning may also improve the after-death part of your plan as well, because it can reduce family conflict and preserve assets against court control or interference in the event of incapacity.

Contact an Experienced Estate Planning Attorney

For insight into how to establish a trust, whether it be a revocable trust or an irrevocable trust, and implement other lifetime planning options, call us today to schedule a consultation.

Prepare Your Florida QIT Right Here, Right Now

The irrevocable Florida qualified income trust, or "Miller Trust." that you can prepare online, for a fixed fee of $295. The trust document is reviewed by Florida elder law attorney C. Randolph Coleman. Mr. Coleman has been a practicing attorney and member of The Florida Bar for over 30 years.

Mr. Coleman has focused exclusively on elder law in Florida and estate planning matters for the past 30+ years, and has prepared hundreds of qualified income trusts that have been accepted by the Florida Department of Children and Families (or its predecessor HRS) to allow elderly skilled nursing home residents to qualify for Medicaid benefits to pay for the skilled nursing home cost.

The qualified income trust that is prepared online is guaranteed to be accepted by DCAF or you will receive a full refund of your purchase.

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Order Your Qualified Income Trust Here

The irrevocable Florida qualified income trust, or "Miller Trust." that you prepare online, for a fixed fee of $295. The trust document is reviewed by Florida elder law attorney C. Randolph Coleman. Mr. Coleman has been a practicing attorney and member of The Florida Bar for over 30 years. If you would like a telephone consultation with Mr. Coleman, or an email consultation with him regarding the qualified income trust, you can purchase those services by clicking here for a telephone consultation, and by clicking here for an email consultation.

Experienced Elder Law Attorney

Mr. Coleman has focused exclusively on elder law in Florida and estate planning matters for the past 30+ years, and has prepared hundreds of qualified income trusts that have been accepted by the Florida Department of Children and Families (or its predecessor HRS) to allow elderly skilled nursing home residents to qualify for Medicaid benefits to pay for the skilled nursing home cost. Mr. Coleman is a member of The Florida Bar Elder Law Section and the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Section of The Florida Bar. He is rated by his professional peers AV (preeminent) by Martindale-Hubbell and has a 10.0 rating (Superb) by AVVO. He is a member of ElderCounsel, LLC, The National Association of Elder Law Attorneys, The Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys, the National Care Planning Council, and WealthCounsel, LLC.

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